Sports

Hot Topics:

Larimer County officials: Property tax loss would hurt county, other taxing districts

By Tom Hacker Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
04/24/2013 09:30:06 PM MDT

Updated:
04/25/2013 10:31:49 AM MDT

FORT COLLINS -- Larimer County officials are sharply attacking a Fort Collins plan to support a $312 million makeover of its Foothills Mall with a $53 million public finance package.

County Commission Chairman Steve Johnson is seeking support from the county's legislative delegation in opposing the city's tax-increment finance plan for the mall that won support from city councilors at a Tuesday study session.

And County Manager Linda Hoffmann says she'll continue to negotiate with city officials to modify the plan that she says depletes property tax income the county and other entities, including nonprofit agencies, depend on.

"I've used the words 'disappointed' and 'hopeful,'" Hoffmann said. "I hope some satisfactory arrangement can be made."

A key feature of the city's offer to Alberta Development Partners, the mall's new owner, is deferment of about $14 million in property taxes over a 25-year period under a widely used finance tool called tax increment financing, or TIF.

The mechanism lets local governments to divert property taxes from projects built in so-called "blighted" zones, covered by urban renewal authorities, back to private developers.

'Big Windfall'

Under the proposed Foothills Mall finance plan, Fort Collins will defer collection of half the sales taxes from the redeveloped retail center, but only for three years.

That difference has county officials crying foul.

"The city of Fort Collins is giving up sales tax for three years, and then they get a big windfall," Commissioner Tom Donnelly said. "We're going to lose property taxes for 25 years."

Johnson sent a strongly worded email message to the six Larimer County members of the Colorado Legislature, knowing that the current session's clock leaves no time for a solution but hoping for their support once it ends.

"We need your help!" Johnson's message began. "The city of Fort Collins is out of control with regard to tax increment financing."

Johnson's letter contained an analysis of how losses from urban renewal finance plans mounted during 2012. The tally of nearly $18.4 million in property tax diversion shows:

A loss of $3.5 million to Larimer County;

$7.5 million in losses to Thompson and Poudre school districts, and other county school districts, that by law was refunded, or "backfilled," by Colorado taxpayers;

About $7.5 million in shortfalls shared by library, health and fire districts and Foothills Gateway, a nonprofit agency for developmentally disabled children and adults.

Fort Collins city councilors who studied the mall finance plan Tuesday night were generally supportive of its ingredients.

But Johnson, who attended the meeting, said he was encouraged by three of the seven members who called for greater fairness to the county.

"I'm optimistic that we can reach some kind of an agreement with this council before May 7," the date councilors vote on the package, Johnson said.

'Night And Day'

Commissioners contrasted the mall plan with another TIF package offered to Woodward, the technology company with plants in Fort Collins and Loveland.

That $16 million incentive proposal, supported by the county, also provides for deferred property taxes for a huge expansion of the company's Fort Collins presence.

"Woodward and the mall redevelopment are night and day," Donnelly said. "It's in the best interest of Fort Collins, Loveland and our county to make sure those jobs, hundreds of high-paying manufacturing jobs, stay here."

Hoffmann said a financial model that Fort Collins and county officials jointly developed in 2007 shows what the toll could be if the Foothills Mall plan goes forward.

$14M 'Intercepted'

"The new development will create a demand for $12.5 million in services over 25 years," she said. "At the same time, we would have $14 million of new property tax intercepted."

While Larimer County has fought property tax deferments in other urban renewal projects, including those covering downtown Loveland and Centerra, the vastness of the Fort Collins mall package makes the load on the county too heavy to bear, Hoffmann said.

"Almost any organization can absorb the effects of one or two of these," she said. "But there are more and more. And this one is the biggest."

Missy Franklin, Jenny Simpson, Adeline Gray and three other Colorado women could be big players at the 2016 Rio OlympicsWhen people ask Missy Franklin for her thoughts about the Summer Olympics that will begin a year from Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, she hangs a warning label on her answer.